Industry Veterans Joining Next Wave CONNECT in Unique Community Leadership Role

HOUSTON, TX--(Marketwired - Dec 10, 2013) - Next Wave CONNECT (www.nextwaveconnect.com), provider of the first healthcare industry-specific enterprise social networking application, today announced that several healthcare industry veterans have joined its support services team as community managers -- a role that will change the way healthcare professionals identify, connect, and communicate with peers and other industry experts to solve healthcare toughest challenges. The community management team provides a unique function in the social networking landscape, and is the first of its kind in healthcare.

Next Wave CONNECT provides communities around vital topics that healthcare professionals are challenged by every day, such as privacy and security and ICD-10. Community managers lead those communities, sharing their professional knowledge and experiences, and proactively connecting members from similar organizations, so they can collaboratively solve operational, regulatory and other problems more quickly.

Besides their personal expertise, community managers can quickly draw on additional resources, like CONNECT's Advisory Council Experts (ACEs) and Community Advisors, healthcare industry experts with extensive specialized knowledge and years of field experience.

"Community managers are an incredibly valuable resource to our members," said Drex DeFord, CEO of Next Wave CONNECT. "They are the hub of our unique member collaboration network, helping CONNECT members join together with industry experts and leap-frog to great solutions that might have taken months to discover on their own. We are very fortunate to have these esteemed healthcare veterans join our team."

The Next Wave CONNECT community manager team has expertise spanning the healthcare industry. Doug Cusick has a 26-year history of successfully implementing transformational healthcare programs at healthcare organizations in both the private and government sectors. His contributions at the enterprise level have helped define standard program processes for use on large-scale, complex programs. Watch this 90-second video to learn more about the unique role of CONNECT community managers.

Robert Cothron, FACHE, a recently retired U.S. Air Force colonel with a successful 26-year military career, brings experience in all areas of healthcare and organizational administration, including strategic planning, information management, team building, facilities management, emergency management and disaster preparedness, quality improvement, compliance and accreditation.

Becky Heflin has spent the last 17-plus years as a project manager and healthcare consultant, with a focus on quality and risk management. Her instinct for building compatible, productive teams has been instrumental to her success at some of the world's largest consulting firms.

Sherry Reynolds is a nationally recognized eHealth expert and patient-centered design consultant. She brings 20-plus years of experience in healthcare IT, organizational development, healthcare public policy, clinical informatics, and engineering -- with unique qualifications across private, public and non-profit sectors.

Next Wave CONNECT is a social networking platform designed by healthcare professionals for healthcare professionals. CONNECT Communities are open to all CONNECT members. Next Wave CONNECT went live on Oct. 8, and has a deeply-committed and growing community of 33 healthcare industry enterprises, comprising over 500 hospitals operating in more than 36 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Become a CONNECT member here.

About Next Wave CONNECTNext Wave CONNECT is a wholly-owned social networking application company of Next Wave Health, based in Houston, Texas. Next Wave CONNECT is the first healthcare industry-specific, smart social networking application connecting healthcare professionals and peers -- of all types, from across healthcare organizations -- giving them a place to collaboratively solve the industry's most challenging problems. For more information, visit www.nextwaveconnect.com.